Tulane Green Wave Have Plenty of Work To Do Despite Undefeated Start to Season

The Tulane Green Wave are not resting on their laurels despite some solid performances out of the gate.

Feb 11, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Tulane Green Wave head coach Ron Hunter reacts during the second half against the Memphis Tigers at FedExForum. / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Coming into the 2024-25 men’s college basketball season, there wasn’t much expected from the Tulane Green Wave.

It was impossible to truly evaluate how they would perform given the lack of evidence to work with. Tulane has only two returning players from last season’s squad, Asher Woods and Gregg Glenn III, and zero seniors on the roster.

Ron Hunter and his staff hit the transfer portal, coming away with some excellent players who have made an immediate impact.

Kaleb Banks, from the Indiana Hoosiers, is the team’s leading scorer and rebounder with 19.3 points and 10.7 rebounds in 28 minutes per game. Rowan Brumbaugh, who transferred in from the Georgetown Hoyas, fills the point guard void and is averaging 13.3 points, 5.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds with only two turnovers in three games.

Mari Jordan, a transfer from the Georgia Bulldogs, is the third player on the team in double-figures, averaging 10 points per contest.

Hunter has been happy with his team’s 3-0 start, as they have handled business against the Louisiana Christian Wildcats, UL-Monroe Warhawks and Alcorn State Braves. But, he knows there is plenty of work remaining to do, especially on the defensive end of the court.

"For about 30 minutes we were good again defensively," the head coach said via Guerry Smith of NOLA.com. "I challenged them to continue to get better defensively. We still have to learn how to maintain our connection and our poise when we get huge leads, but that's a hard thing to do with a veteran team, let alone a young team."

There will assuredly be some hiccups when working with a team as young as this one. It takes time to develop chemistry and cohesion while gaining experience with an underrated roster talent-wise.

Hunter is also doing things that he has never previously done as a head coach. In the season opener, he had four freshmen on the court at the same time. Against Alcorn State, he used his entire roster before halftime.

"My son (volunteer assistant coach R.J. Hunter) actually asked me if I was OK at halftime, and I was like, what are you talking about?" Hunter said. "He said we played 15 guys and you don't ever do that. I didn't realize I'd done it, but we're just scratching the surface with this team."

As players' roles become more defined, we could see contests where Hunter goes deep into his bench to find combinations that he likes. Having functional depth is very important, as things could change between now and March when the regular season winds down.

With losing records in four out of the five seasons he has been at the helm, there hasn’t been much to play for at that point in the campaign. But, that could certainly change this time, as there is a lot of talent to work with.

"This team has a chance to be pretty good, but we're a long way away," Hunter said. "We just have to take everything day by day and not worry about records or any of those type of things. We are much better than we were a month ago. I can't even imagine where we are going to be in January, February and March."